Church Discipline in a Christian Non-Profit? Church Discipline Part IV

How to Apply the Biblical Concept of Church Discipline in a Non-Profit Environment

Although church discipline is reserved for the shepherds of God's people within the church, what about Christian organizations? Should they, like Christian schools or non-profits, exercise church discipline? The short answer is no. However, we believe there are some principles Christian organizations can extrapolate from the biblical purpose, pattern, and practice of church discipline.

In this article, we want to highlight three overarching principles (and practices) for how Christian organizations can apply the concept of church discipline to create healthy organizational cultural environments.

1. Create covenantal expectations for the organization

Regardless of whether it's Christian or not, every organization should set clear expectations for their employees (or volunteers).[1] This is simply good leadership.

We also believe Christian organizations should go a step further and create a covenantal document. This document should highlight the most critical and vital expectations for those working in the organization and ask each employee to read and sign. [2]

Here are a few things such a document and practice do:

It communicates to the employee your seriousness about these expectations
It immediately creates accountability
It outlines your expectations for their character, conduct, behavior, and work ethic.

In addition to the covenantal expectations, every organization should have a personnel manual or staff handbook that details more expectations of the employee and the organization. The handbook is a living working document providing an overview of policies, procedures, and guidelines. In other words, the handbook offers a framework for protecting both the company's rights and the rights of its employees. [3] The covenantal ...